EDMONTON — After his team closed out 2018 with a well-earned 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler’s answer to a big picture question pretty much summed up what he has in mind for 2019.

An Edmonton-based reporter ran through a list of impressive things that happened to the Jets in 2018 — a second-place overall finish, a trip the conference final and a spot in first place in their devision after the last game of the year.

“You must be pretty satisfied?” the reporter prompted.

“No,” Wheeler said, emphatically.

“Definitely it’s been a good building year for our club and a great learning experience last spring. We’re definitely headed in the right direction but we still have things to learn. We’re still one of the youngest teams in the league. That being said, we have a lot to like, a lot to build on and a lot to be excited about going into 2019.”

The Jets clearly have bigger goals than to just make it to the Western Conference final. They believe they have a team that can win the Stanley Cup, with players like Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Dustin Byfuglien in their primes and a host of young players with all kinds of skill.

They’ve produced on the ice in the first half of the NHL season, racking up 25 wins and 52 points, which is good enough for first place in the tough Central Division.

And yet, something hasn’t seemed quite right with this team all season. It rarely seems to fire on all cylinders and has played in such a fashion that some fans have a hard time taking it seriously as a Cup contender.

A stretch of three straight games in which the Jets scored only one goal will do that. So will generally average goaltending from 2017-18 Vezina Trophy finalist Connor Hellebuyck. So will scoring droughts for players like Kyle Connor, Patrik Laine and Bryan Little.

All those things are cause for some concern, but there’s also the very positive way of seeing this: The Jets are in first place despite not putting it all together yet this season.

Are they right where they want to be? No.

But do they have the goods to get there? Yes.

“I think we have a lot of big things to work on and because we have such a young team, there’s a lot to learn,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “But we are pleased that while we’re on this process of kind of developing these young players, we’ve been able to win a bunch of hockey games. We have good leadership on our top end, our veteran group can drive a game.”

The Jets certainly appeared to get back on track on New Year’s Eve against a desperate Oilers team that had lost five straight games and made a couple of trades on Sunday to try to end the slump.

Winnipeg had lost two straight games as well, but after a slow start on Monday night, they were clearly the better team for the final 50 minutes.

Getting two big goals from rookie fourth-liner Brendan Lemieux, another from Wheeler and one from third-liner Brandon Tanev, the Jets earned full marks for the win. They outshot the Oilers 36-24 and generated 68 shot attempts, meaning their offensive zone time was considerable.

Yes, it took a last minute glove save by Connor Hellebuyck off hat trick-seeking Leon Draisaitl to preserve the win, but it would have been a travesty if the game had gone to overtime, given how badly the Jets outplayed the Oilers over the final two periods.

They broke out of their recent scoring slump with contributions from their bottom-six players and defencemen Jacob Trouba and Joe Morrow, who came out of the press box to fill in for the injured Byfuglien.

Trouba’s point shot was tipped in by Tanev for the Jets first goal and Morrow’s shot was re-directed by Lemieux for the game-winner with 5:58 left in the third period.

“That’s what a team is, production throughout your lineup, guys stepping up,” Wheeler said. “It’s great to get a boost from that line (Andrew Copp between Lemieux and Jack Roslovic). I thought they had a great night. They were all over the puck and even when they didn’t get rewarded, I thought they played a real strong game. Obviously a huge boost, (Lemieux) picks up two goals and a big game-winner.”

If 2019 brings more of the same, the Jets will surely be a post-season team, quite possibly with home-ice advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs.

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